Five Hundred Arhats No.351 · The Venerable Sure Understanding of Emptiness | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.351 The Venerable Sure Understanding of Emptiness

'Sure understanding of emptiness' means raising a superior conviction about emptiness, truly seeing all dharmas as empty of self-nature, the conviction firm, decided and undoubting about emptiness; the name marks one with sure understanding of emptiness, contemplative wisdom clear and decisive. The venerable makes a true-contemplation gesture with a decisive look, possessing the clarity of sure understanding of emptiness, seeing dharmas as selfless, decided on emptiness, penetrating the principle through superior discriminating wisdom.

Painted by Li Zongyi in the freehand Chinese ink (xieyi) tradition, the brushwork is fluent and the ink tones layered from dense to pale, capturing the arhat’s spirit in a few assured strokes. The blank paper itself breathes Zen; figure and spirit are one, blending monastic solemnity with the literati’s ease. Each of the Five Hundred Arhats bears its own name and practice, uniting faith, art and collectibility — an original, non-reproducible hand-painted work.

Size: approx. 100×50cm (4.5 square chi) | Traditional hand-painted Chinese ink Zen Buddhist figure painting | On paper